192 



THE AMERICAN A PICUL TUR IS T. 



The Carniohm bee is probably a variety, 

 or at least an offshoot, of tlie black bee, 

 which it very closely resembles. It is 

 peculiar in beiiij^thc most amiable of all the 

 races of bees. Witli reasonable care in 

 handling!; it will rarely stini;. The Car- 

 niolan bees seem very good for honey, 

 but are a little too ready to swarm. 



The Albino bees are simply a sport from 

 the Italians. We often find colonies a- 

 niong our Italian bees tliat loolv very wliite, 

 owing to a superabundance of white hairs. 

 Some breeders have bred with this qual- 

 ity in view, and have emphasized this pe- 

 culiarity. These parties claim superior 

 excellence for this variety, but after sev- 

 eral trials I only praise tlie Albino bees 

 for their beauty and amiability. I liave 

 always found them poor honey producers. 



The Cyprian bees are much like the Ital- 

 ians in appearance. They are from the 

 Island of Cyprus, and doubtless are a dis- 

 tinct type of the yellow race of bees. They 

 have some persistent marks which makes 

 it easy to determine their identity. In 

 temper, they are very cross, but like most 

 cross bees, they are excellent honey pro- 

 ducers. Many European beekeepers es- 

 teem them as the best honey gatherers. 



The Syrian bees look much like the Cy- 

 prians, but are easily distinjjuished by any 

 experienced beekeeper. I have had con- 

 siderable experience with these bees, and 

 like them very nmch. I am now care- 

 fully crossing Syrians with Caruiolans, in 

 hopes to get the vigor and proliflcness 

 of the former and the amiability of the lat- 

 ter. 1 believe some such cross will give 

 us the ideal bee. As bees, unlike cattle, 

 are all reared for a single purpose, tliere 

 is no objection to crossing them. Indeed, 

 I believe one of the greatest lines of prog- 

 ress lies in this direction. If we can rear 

 a^race with the amiability of the Carnio- 

 lan, the vigor and fertility of the Syrian, 

 which shall also have the excellence of 

 the black bee as a producer of comb hon- 

 ey, we shall surely make a ereat advance. 

 ^A. J. Cook. 



Michigan Agricultural College. 



Bees vs. Fruit.— Report of special 

 agent McCain to Entomologist of the De- 

 partment of Agi-iculture : 



"I have, according to your instruc- 

 tions, repeated my experiments of last 

 year for testing tiie capacity of bees, un- 

 der exceptional circumstances, to injure 

 fruit; adiling such otlier tests and obser- 

 vations as the severe and protracted 

 drought permitted. The house used last 

 season, 10 feet by 10 feet in size, having 

 sides partly covered with wire cloth and 



large screen doors in each end, was used 

 again this year. Two colonies of Italian 

 bees, two of hybrids, one of Caucasians, 

 and two of Syrians were confined in this 

 house. 



These colonies were without food in 

 their hives, and at intervals of three or 

 four days were fed a little syrup for the 

 purpose of keeping up their vigor and to 

 prevent dying from starvation. A wood- 

 stove was placed in the liouse and a high 

 temperature was maintained for a num- 

 ber of hours each day. 



The conditions incident to an unusually 

 severe and protracted drouglit were pres- 

 ent witliin and witliout. The bees were 

 repeatedly brought to the stages of hun- 

 ger, thirst, and starvation, the test con- 

 tinuing for forty days. 



Tlirough the favor of Mrs. T. T. Lyon, 

 president of the Michigan State Horticul- 

 tural Society, I obtained thirteen varieties 

 of choice grapes from A. G. Gulley, of 

 South Haven. Every inducement and op- 

 portunity was afforded the bees to appease 

 their hunger and thirst by attacking the 

 fruit which was placed before them. 

 Some of the bunches of grapes were dipped 

 in syrup and hung in the hives between 

 the coml)s, some placed before the hives 

 on plates, and ,i:rapes were suspended in 

 clusters from the posts and rafters. Tlie 

 bees lapped and sucked all the syrup 

 from tlie skins, leaving the berries smooth. 



They daily visited the grapes in great 

 numbers, and took advantage of every 

 crack in the epidermis or opening at the 

 stem, appropriating to their use every 

 drop of juice therefrom, but they made no 

 attempt lo grasp the cuticle with their 

 maiulibles or claws. I removed the epi- 

 dermis carefully from dozens of grapes of 

 various kinds and placed them on plates 

 before tiie hives. The bees lapped up all 

 the juice on the outside of the film sur- 

 rounding the segments of the firape, 

 leaving this delicate film dry and shining, 

 but through and beyond this film tiiey 

 were not able to penetrate. I punctured 

 tlie skins of grapes of all kinds by passing 

 needles of various sizes through the grape 

 and placed these before the bees. The 

 needles used were in size from a tine cam- 

 bric needle to a jacking needle. The 

 amount of juice appropriated was in 

 proportion to the size of the opening in 

 the skins and the number of segmenis of 

 the grape broken. The same was true in 

 tlie case of grapes burst from overripe- 

 ness. Eees are not oidy unable to pene- 

 trate the epidermis of grape, but they 

 also api)ear to be unable, even when im- 

 pelled by the direst necessity, to penetrate 

 the lilin surrounding the berry even after 

 the epiderniis is removed. Grapes so 



